


Reactions A to Z

by asparagusmama



Category: Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio), Doctor Who (Comics), Doctor Who: Virgin New Adventures - Various Authors
Genre: Drone Yoyos, Umbrellas and hats, X-Rays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-05 14:29:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 5,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11579958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asparagusmama/pseuds/asparagusmama
Summary: That's Zed, as in I'm English :)The Doctor meets a few old companions in her new body.Mostly drabbles and double drabbles.





	1. A is for Ace!

“Is it really you Professor? Gordon Bennett! What a complete a div! What an absolute spot!”

“Ace! Please!”

“Well, honestly Professor, you’re the one who told me that Time Lords change sex when they kill themselves. Why’d’ya do that then? Did you want to be a girl then? Looking good girl, Professor, but I’ve seen you prettier.”

“I had no choice. I had to save the children. There was no other way to slow the Cybermen down and let them escape. I had to blow everything up. I had no time for triggers or remotes or timers.”

“Boom?”

“Boom!”

“Wicked!”


	2. Explaining regeneration to Barbara

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in the middle of The Romans, in a market near the villa where Barbara and Ian are hanging out, waiting for the Doctor and Vicki to return, once they recovered from their own adventure in Rome.
> 
> Double drabble.

“But is it you? Really?” Barbara asked, confused.

“Yes Barbara. It is. My species, we can change, renew ourselves if you like, when we are sick or injured, or our bodies have just worn too thin. I have done it many times since we met.”

“Are you sure...?” Barbara looked deeply into the Doctor’s eyes and she saw something in the woman sat opposite her.

“Yes.”

“I always suspected you and Susan weren’t human,” she said eventually. “But to change your sex like that. Have you done it many times? If I meet Susan would she be a man? What about David.”

“It’s not so simple. I’m sure Susan stayed looking relatively young as he aged.”

“You don’t know...”

“I have met Susan, yes. But you are still with me and I can’t know my future.”

Barbara squeezed the Doctor’s hands. “I understand. Well, it’s good to see you Doctor. I know now at least that Ian and I will not be abandoned here.”

“No. I will get back to your villa soon. I promise. In the meantime,” the Doctor grinned, with a twinkle in her eye that Barbara recognised instantly as the same Doctor, “you and Ian enjoy yourselves.”


	3. A jolly wheeze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little sideways adventure with Charley (whom I was shocked to find out has no tag here already!)

“Golly gosh! It is you! I can somehow feel it’s you!”

“A gift of the TARDIS I suspect. She was always so cruel to you, the way time wibble-wobbled around you; she left you with more of her than many of my companions. Oh, it’s good to see you Charley! I’ve been racking my brains how to get into that party, and you were always so good with charming people.”

“And you are sure that they’re feeding off the people?”

“They are psychovores, in this case they feed off happiness. They will suck the party goers dry, until they are a grey, empty husk, worse that the worst possible depression.”

“Well, we can’t let that happen! You know, it is it fun to be doing this again. And what a jolly wheeze; my bestie being a girl. You were always so girly, Doctor, both times I knew you. Are you happy in this body?”

“Oh yes! When aren’t I happy Charley? When aren’t I?”

“We better find and stop those happy eating psychovores then! Come on, I’ll be able to crash us in no problem,” and with that Charley linked arms with the Doctor and led her down the street.


	4. Sometimes a child is enough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A longer fic for Dodo. It's been my head canon for over 20 years that she left when she did because she was pregnant and the Doctor had no idea, but this is the first time I've explored it or even shared it really...

The Doctor stood in the park, watching and listening. Children ran about, climbed trees and paddled in the pond. Mothers and grandmothers sat on benches or stood about in huddles, chatting, some leaning on the big prams. The health and safety of the end of the century not even dreamed off. There were no men, this decade was strict on gender identity and roles; humans were so small sometimes.

The birds sang, the children laughed, the dogs barked and the stream burbled. It was something from a picture book.

She entered the park by the road, opposite the clinic, pushing her battered second hand pram; it’s large wheels bumping over the hard path. The breath caught in the Doctor’s throat, she still looked like Susan so much.

The Doctor became aware of the mutterings of some of the other women. “Slut,” one spat out as she passed the group.

“Hey! That’s uncalled for!” the Doctor yelled, running up to Dodo. “Are you alright my dear?”

Dodo looked up with no trace of recognition. Of course not, why would should? The Doctor swallowed. “I’ve... come from the Doctor. To see you are alright?” she stuttered out.

“Oh! You must thank him for setting up the bank account for me. He didn’t need to.”

She remembered doing that in her seventh body, tied up a lot of loose ends, he did. “Of course I... he... did!”

Dodo sat down heavily on a bench, the other women still looked, muttering at Dodo’s supposed immorality and also the Doctor’s trousers and boots, not a done thing apparently. The Doctor wanted to shout, “I used to be male last week,” just to see the shock in their pinched, tired, small minded faces. Instead, she put her hand on Dodo’s shoulder and peered into the pram. It was a girl, judging by the pink, and it would be, such a gender restrictive society, and asleep peacefully. She was dark skinned, with curly hair, and the Doctor remembered the Egyptian sailor in the seventeenth century Port Said, and the soul-eating creatures the Cult of Set has awoken. He had died to save them. Dodo had been heartbroken. At the time, in his naivety of human biology, he had assumed the sickness, the fainting, and the headaches were physical symptoms of a broken heart and grief in one so young. He didn’t really realise for centuries, not until a conversation with Jo, after a scare following an unsuccessful night with Mike. If later companions were as young and naive, he had the appropriate embarrassing conversation, or delegated it, more often. Twenty first century girls were more knowledgeable about their bodies, thankfully. She reached out and touched Dodo’s shoulder.

“People are so narrow minded here. If you like, my dear, I can take you somewhere where the colour of your baby or the lack of ring on your finger or husband at home just don’t matter. Would you like that, h’m?”

Dodo looked at the Doctor sharply. “You sound just like him, you know? Are you his daughter? I know his granddaughter looks a bit like me.”

“In a manner of speaking I am the Doctor.”

“What? What manner is that then?”

“Every manner that counts, really, Dodo.”

“Oh, don’t explain, everything was always so confusing and scary.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologise. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, or be without little Stephanie Rose.”

“Rose, you called her Rose...” the Doctor whispered softy.

“Yeah. I always liked that name. Are you the Doctor then? You feel a bit like him, you sound like him. How can an old man become a young woman? Like reincarnation, is it, like the Indians believe in?”

The Doctor grinned. “Something like that. Well? Would you? Like to go somewhere less... prejudiced?”

Dodo shook her head. “Polly and her Uncle are good to me. Polly’s got me a job for next year, in a typing pool. I’m learning short hand and typing at evening school at Coal Hill. This teacher, Mr Chesterton, turned up at Polly’s flat and suggested I move to Shoreditch. It’s better than being in the sticks. I like London better. And I got back in touch with my aunt. She was super shocked, but she’s fab now, a great great auntie. She’s gonna look after little Stevie when I go to work, she comes over now when I go to my classes.”

“So, you are happy here?”

“I wouldn’t be without Stevie, she looks so like Ahmed. I tell people he died, but if they ask I just say he drowned.”

“But those women.”

“Doctor, people were always tutting at me. I was about to be expelled from school when I found you and Steven.”

“Doesn’t it... hurt?”

“Little. But I know I’m better than that, they think I’m no better that I ought to, having a baby, but I know I’ve seen the future and the past and fought monsters and robots and all sorts. They can tut and spit and name call all they... they bloody well want! So there!”

“If you are sure...”

The Doctor stood up.

“Thanks for the money, it helps a lot, I don’t think I could bear it if I had to live with my aunt or go on National Assistance.”

The Doctor smiled softly, and touched the sleeping Stephanie’s arm. “She’s beautiful.”

“I think so. Thank you for seeing me.”

“Well, goodbye Dodo. Good luck.” She touched the tip of Dodo’s nose and turned to walk away.

“Wait Doctor!”

She turned, “Yes?”

“I saw a young man in a long coat with sticking up hair, really dishy looking fella, at Stevie’s Christening. Was that you?”

The Doctor shrugged and grinned again. “That’s me, or was. Yes.”

“But you had to be a woman to come see me, I haven’t done amazing things, like Steven, just had a baby, so...”

The Doctor blushed to the roots of her blond hair. “I’m sorry. I was embarrassed. I didn’t realise. My people, we don’t have babies in quite the same way as humans, I didn’t quite...” she flailed off, stuttering as much as her young loom body.

Dodo stood up and flung her arms around the Doctor. “It’s okay Doctor. Thank you for coming to see us!”


	5. A hospital visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set during the Big Finish Sixth Doctor adventure 'Thicker Than Water' by Paul Sutton. The scene is in hospital after Evelyn has collapsed and recovering from surgery. She has just had a mysterious visit from the Seventh Doctor telling her his companion Hex is (Vampire) Cassie's son little Tommy. The Sixth Doctor himself has shown up three years after she left him, and she is hurt as she wanted him to come to her wedding and give her away. Too much for the Doctor to apologise for really.

Dr Evelyn Smyth lay on the hospital bed, monitors surrounding her, checking on her. Downstairs Evelyn’s Doctor and Mel battled. The Doctor had timed it wrong and had seen him; his bright blue eyes shocked and she grinned and put her fingers to her lips. He’d forget, the Blinovitch Limitation Effect.

The Doctor stepped it to the room and checked on the monitors, satisfied with Evelyn’s progress.

“Thank you. Thank you so much for mending my broken mind, for all the cake.”

“Is someone there?” 

“Just the Doctor.” 

“Oh,” Evelyn muttered, falling asleep. The Doctor kissed her brow and left.


	6. Watching the penguins

The TARDIS materialized at the Antarctica. All around the scanner showed clear blue-white ice fields and hills. The Doctor pulled on an old fur coat, a woolly hat and gloves, fur-lined boots, and went outside. All was peaceful, and she contemplated building a snowman, or snowwoman even!

As she stumbled over the rise the view took her breath away, as far as the eye could see were penguins nursing their eggs at their feet.

“Quite a view, ain’t it Doc?” said a voice not quite American.

The Doctor turned, startled, and saw another penguin, except this one was about five foot tall with an expressive face and fingers at the end of the flippers.

“Frobisher! My giddy aunt! You did surprise me! How did you know it was me?”

Frobisher gave the Doctor a withering look of contempt, “Do me a favour Doctor, I’m a Whifferdill, I know how to recognise another shape-changer when I see one.”

“Oh.”

“Besides, I heard the TARDIS and his is at the old Bryd science base.”

“What are you doing here then?”

“Don’t you remember? The humans were a bit freaked. They found a frozen cyborg arm. My money’s on Borg, but the Doctor reckons it’s Cyberman. Want to settle the bet?”

“Perhaps it’s reptilian cyborg, did either of you think of that? But I don’t remember though. Do I need help, do you think?”

“Oh no, my Doctor’s already batshit crazy, without finding out he’s gonna be a girl one day. Why doncha watch the penguins with me for a bit? Pretty here while it lasts, before the humans fuck it all up and it melts, causing mass extinctions, including those poor boys over there.”

“Why not?” the Doctor flashed her former companion a grin and sat down on the ice next him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Frobisher. companion from the 1980s DMW comic strip, also featured in a couple of Big Finish audios.


	7. Five rounds rapid

“Fall back!” Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart ordered his men in a loud roar.

There were explosions and whines of ‘rayguns’ everywhere. He watched a man fall. Saw another of the upright doglike soldiers fall to own men’s bullets. He’d lost count of the men he had lost today. Damnable dog creatures were everywhere, determined to invade Battersea.

“Five rounds rapid at the front of the pack!” he called as the remaining UNIT troops had all piled into the trucks and jeeps and retreated back a few streets.

“If only the Doctor were still here!” the Brigadier addressed whoever was driving his jeep. It was so annoying, but the Doctor had changed again, into a curly haired, goggle eyed, ridiculously long scarf wearing child, took Sarah Jane, and run away, leaving Earth and its fate to him.

“I’m here Brigadier. And I suggest a compromise and parley. It seems to me, you started this. They were only looking for supplies, to survive until they could repair their ship.”

There was something off about the voice. “You would Doctor...” he turned to look at his driver. “Good heavens, so you’re a woman now, eh Doctor! You never cease to surprise me!”


	8. “Oh my God!”

“Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!”

“No, still not God, not since the last time you said that, went you first came aboard my TARDIS.”

“Oh my God! How can it be you? You’re with Ace...”

“I’ve crossed my own time stream. I seem to be doing this a lot. I’m rather preoccupied at the moment, Ace and I, so I thought, since I was in the neighbourhood, I’d rescue you from a fate worse than. So be a dear and be quiet!” The Doctor proceeded to untie Hex from the tent pole he was tied to.


	9. It’s not that I don’t believe you, but...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 22 words over a drabble, but I couldn't bear to cut it more!

Ian didn’t quite believe Barbara, he had a feeling she was pulling his leg. So he pulled on his toga, rushed to the market and there he saw her – him – her – the Doctor. A woman was wandering through the market, picking up ripe peaches and shaking them by her ear, poking at ripe cheeses, and popping olives and dates in her mouth, all the while chatting quite happily with the stallholders. A woman with her hair uncovered, in black trousers, a long jacket and chunky boots, a woman not behaving as a Roman woman should, dressed in clothes not only too heavy for the weather, but from the wrong century entirely.

Of course it was the Doctor! He owed Barbara an apology!


	10. I’ll be fine

Jo sat beside the Doctor and curled up and tried not to cry. He was covered in a rim of frost and barely breathing. They were miles from the spaceship, light years from the TARDIS, which she had no idea how to pilot, and she was also centuries in her past and two galaxies away.

She was never going to see home again. If she made it out of here alive. She hugged herself tighter, shivering. The wind blew through the trees.

“Come on Doctor!” she muttered, desperate and afraid.

“I’ll be fine,” a gentle voice from behind her said.

Jo looked up, startled, to see a thin tall blonde woman standing over her.

“Who are you?”

“The Doctor. And don’t worry, he’ll – I’ll wake up soon. I just need to shut down to repair the damage.”

“Are you really the Doctor? A sort of ghost from his brain or a future incarnation? I’ve met his two previous selves you know.”

“Ooh, I’m so far in his future, you could call me a ghost. But Jo, don’t give up. Rest. Keep you both safe. I’ll wake up fine.”

“But...?” Jo looked up but the woman had vanished into the trees.


	11. Fractured Time Streams

The Doctor watched for some time, head stuck in the engines, surrounded by temporal back flow. Muscles rippled as she moved. The sun shone down on her dark skin. Beautiful in an animalistic way. Built, she was, not made. The Doctor thought what all this unshielded time travel would do to her in her personal future, how he had dealt with it in her personal past. Pronouns were getting silly.

“Hello!” 

Kadiatu stood upright, alert. Fortunately the Doctor had chosen to stand far off, and held up her hands now, in surrender.

“Friend. I might be able to help.”

“I doubt it. Unless you know anything about time vessels, which is unlikely.”

“Unless I’m the Doctor. Which I am.”

Kadiatu regarded her coolly. “Now, there’s a regeneration I know nothing of.”

“Exhilarating, isn’t it? Something you don’t know. Can I help?” the Doctor pulled her sonic screwdriver from her pocket.

Kadiatu stood back from her simple time ship. “Help yourself.”

The Doctor took over, and momentarily, contemplated unwriting the past, to ensure Kadiatu’s ship would no longer punch holes in space-time. 

But she resisted the urge. It had happened, and no more would she play with Time as a toy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kadiatu Lethbridge Stewart is from the Virgin New Adventure novels. She is a companion, friend, ally and sometimes adversary and foe, and someone who in building her own time-ship punches holes in the fabric of space-time. She is a created being, the first of a new generation of uber-soldier created from DNA of the elite who fought the Ice Warriors in the 2100s. Her adoptive father, a descendant of the Brigadier, cannot kill her as he can the foetuses and genetic material and takes her home to his wife. Until she meets the Doctor she has no idea she is adopted nor of what lurks in her DNA, the violence. She first appears in 'Transit' by Ben Aaronovitch and in way is the 'mother' of all the awesome black women, river gods and humans alike, in the Peter Grant novels ;)


	12. Tears that bind us

Blinded by tears Liz strode across the moor. She had left the Doctor fuming in Bessie. How would he ever trust the Brigadier again?

How could she?

“You look like you need a hug.”

Liz looked up, startled. The most oddly dressed young woman was standing in front of her. Beyond her sat the TARDIS. Which was impossible, as the Doctor’s magic box was in the UNIT lab, the Doctor down the hill.

“Who are you?”

“The Doctor.”

“Unlikely.”

“I – he – the Doctor’s told you that he is a Time Lord, that he travels in time, that he can regenerate. He’s told you all these things.”

“He didn’t say anything about changing sex.”

“It’s not something to happen often. Not something we talk about.”

“Okay... Doctor. What are you doing here?”

“Down there I am young and hurting badly, I don’t let humans in. I need a hug, badly, I assure you. So...” she held out her arms to Liz. “Pass it on, eh? And do me a favour; learn all you can about Silurian biology and culture.”

“For the Doctor? Um, you?” Liz said, letting the hug happen, she wasn’t the touchiest of people.

“For you, Liz. For you.”


	13. The black sheep companion

“Bloody Glitz, when I get hold of him...!” Melanie pulled against the chains holding her to the wall of the cell. When she escaped she’d give him a piece of her mind. She thought they were medical computer wafers, not... porn!

“Bloody Glitz indeed,” a voice whispered behind her.

“Who’s that?”

“An echo from the future, but hold still.”

Melanie heard the whine of a sonic device and her hands were free.

“Quickly,” said the woman, “my hypnosis never lasts long. The guard’ll wake soon.”

Melanie followed the woman out of the guardhouse and down a side street to...

The TARDIS!

“Are you a companion?” she asked as the woman opened the door with a click of her fingers.

“No,” the Doctor grinned. “And, you, my dear Mel, have followed the wrong path. I’m taking you home.”

“Er, no Doctor. No you’re not. Interesting regeneration. And even more interesting redecoration of the console room, but I’ve made my bed. And I have a piece of my mind to tell Glitz. When I’m ready to go home, I’ll make my own way thank you. But do stay around, come say hi to Glitz. He’ll be very interested in your new regeneration.”


	14. Lazers supplies

The Doctor opened the door of the TARDIS, not knowing what to expect. When she had answered the distress call it had been so good to hear her voice. She stepped out into the grey landing bay, walkway in front her of. 

“Doctor?” said Nyssa, uncertainly, peering across the bay. 

“Yes. I have the supplies you requested. I can see, even from here, the improvements you’ve made. I’m so proud of you. Well done.”

“I understand the techno-biology of regeneration. Of course I do. But to change at the chromosomal level, rather than merely rescramble the DNA. I did not know the Rassilon imprimatur allowed such a thing. Was it an accident? How do you feel? Are you still male inside? Although, you were rather gender fluid after your difficult regeneration. Are you happy? Did you ask the Sisters of Karn for help?”

The Doctor grinned and put her hands in her pockets of her trousers. “My Nyssa. Always so bright and curious. How about you help me unload the drugs and food, then let’s sit down over a pot of tea and I’ll explain everything then.”

Nyssa grinned back. “Always later with you Doctor.”

They fell into a hug.


	15. Look left, look right

The Doctor had enjoyed wandering around the market. She had picked up some apples and bananas as well as several different sweets, all by the pound, and hugged her purchases to her chest. It was nice not to have to worry about the fate of a planet for once, and just wander about and observe. It was a beautiful sunny day in 1956 Camden Lock and all was well with Earth. She’d had a pot of tea and slice of fruitcake, shopped, and then found a lovely pub playing live music. She had listened to a skiffle band, had a pint, smiled at all the raised eyebrows to her inappropriate behaviour for her new gender. A lovely, relaxing day. She stepped out to cross the road to the park where the TARDIS was parked...

The next thing she knew she was sprawled on her back on the path, a young woman on top of her. She looked to her left to watch the apples roll away, and look at the squashed bananas and jelly babies on the road and saw the back end of the lorry.

“You could have been killed, you idiot!” the splinter of Clara told her crossly


	16. Running down corridors

“Doctor! Doctor!” Peri yelled, trying and failing to keep up with the hideously brightly coloured retreating back. Ever since he had regenerated he had bellowed, shouted, strutted, and pondered, but he didn’t keep her safe! She missed her Doctor! And now she was about to be captured and who knew what these future humans did to stowaways?

Suddenly an arm appeared from the wall and she was yanked inside a cupboard. A woman in black jeans and a black hoody, clothes that were definitely not from this century, put her finger to her lips and grinned.

“Give me time,” she whispered. “I’m having a terrible time adjusting this regeneration. Worst ever. Worst than this one, and I have new bits and hormones to deal with. Give me time Peri. I may not say it, but I need you.”

“Doctor?” Peri shrieked, but this new Doctor put her hands over her mouth.

“S’sh. They’ll find you.”

“What about you?” Peri whispered.

“Oh. I’m an echo. I was never here. Just... look after me, please. You should be safe here until I find you.”

Peri nodded.

“Good girl,” the Doctor said with a twinkle. This one reminded Peri of her own, the one she had met in Greece. When she looked again, the Doctor was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 14 over a double drabble, but I can’t cut it more :(


	17. Wild card 1: Q

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor receives a visitor for another universe, a different continuum ;)

The Doctor sat in the kitchen of the TARDIS staring into space, thinking about Bill, what the Master had done, feeling melancholy and alone, a pot of tea and pile of toast untouched on the table before her when someone just popped into existence, sitting at the table. As always, when he chose to visit the Doctor, he wore the high collar, skullcap, and robes of the Lord High President of Gallifrey.

“Wallowing again Doctor! Chin up!”

“Go away Q!”

“Shan’t!” and with a snap of fingers, the tea was fresh, the toast transformed to three tiers of teatime goodies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Q stumped me, I suppose I could have done Erimem or Nefetiti, but didn't feel I could do either justice!


	18. A Doctor by any other gender

The Doctor had been excited when he learnt that the CVEs were still open, although it had taken him three more regenerations to find the right one, making the right calculations. She was regretting it as Rose stood before her, eyes streaming with mascara-blackened tears.

“You can’t be a woman! You just can’t! What about us?”

“Oh Rose. I love you dearly. I always had. You took me, broken, newly regenerated from the Time War and literally put me back together. You are so special. Please don’t bring it down to...” the Doctor waved her hands in the air, blushing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This contains a reference to an idea in the proper novel (I hope, if I post it as a fan novel I was told to p-off by the Beeb books and Big Finish, or chickened out of sending it), a political allegory novel set in the near future of an alternative Earth...


	19. Dalek at Wapping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> drabble and a quarter :)

Sarah-Jane shut the cupboard door, panting. She had been running up three flights of stairs now. She had managed to clear all floors except the Mail; she had nearly vomited at sight of the Dalek irradiated bodies. Her sonic lipstick had managed to scramble it long enough to evacuate everyone, but now it was hunting her with her non-Earth technology. Her heart felt like it would burst. She was too old for this.

She bit a scream as a soft hand slipped in hers. “When I say now, open the door and throw this old cloth over the eyestalk. Then we’ll sonic it and push it out of the window,” said a woman’s voice.

She’d worry about that later.

“Doctor! About time you showed up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If any group of humans deserve to be exterminated by the supreme experts in racial, national, and genetic purity and hatred of the other, difference, and disability...


	20. Lady of the Manor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A visit to Turlough Manor on Trion...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A drabble and a half! :)

Turlough poured the tea and stared into space, not looking at this new Doctor sitting beside him on the Veranda of his family home. The Doctor had been visiting him, on and off, since he turned up distressed, dressed as a mad clown. Sometimes they had adventures. Sometimes they had fun of a more... personal nature. He glanced at the Doctor, who was brushing hair back off... their face and tucking the strand behind the ear.

“I’m sorry Doctor. I am. But I’m 100% homosexual. I don’t think we can have fun anymore.”

He looked up to see hurt in the Doctor’s eyes, before in typical Doctor- style she hid it with an idiot grin. “We can still be friends, can’t we?” she asked carelessly.

Turlough grinned. “Of course! Best friends.” He picked up her now very small hand and squeezed it. “Want to hear about the latest Malkon disaster?”


	21. Wildcard 2: Umbrella

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drabble and a quarter :)

The Doctor stood in the wardrobe room, surrounded by discarded clothing, piles of them. Clothing was a security, a comfort to cling to, the thing that first identified him when he regenerated. Or her, she supposed. Things she liked didn’t fit, and she scowled at the TARDIS. Things that fitted belonged to former companions and didn’t feel right at all. Not Doctory enough. Not her.

Something caught the Doctor’s eye, poking out of a pile. She pulled at the red question mark and out came the umbrella, the white hat attached. She rolled the hat up her arm and flipped it onto her head grinning, opening the umbrella and held it above her head and twirled, singing tunelessly an approximation of ‘Singing in the Rain’.


	22. Flowers

The Doctor had been here before, the Harries house. That time he had slipped back, watching as Victoria left the house, hidden behind a tree. The flowers dumped in a bin on the way back to the TARDIS. Sadly, it felt like her nerve was giving out too as she shrank back, watching Victoria. He decided she wouldn’t understand regeneration; it would confuse her, alarm her that he was young and dying. What would she think of her now?

This time the flowers didn’t go in the bin. The Doctor knocked on the door, handing them to Mrs Harries.


	23. The Noble Don

“Hey! It’s you. The Doctor! I know it’s the Doctor!” an elderly man’s voice called.

Startled, the Doctor turned around to see Wilfred Mott. Her face split into a maniacal wide grin. 

“How did you know it was me?” she asked, amazed. Donna’s Granddad had always blown him... her... away with his perception.

“You’ve gone and done it. Just like my Donna.”

“What? She shouldn’t...”

“She always knew something was missing, she had depression so bad she killed herself. Woke in the morgue a bloke, didn’t she. A Time Lord!”

The Doctor grinned more widely and hugged Wilfred Mott tightly.


	24. Wildcard 3: X-Ray

The Doctor stared at the ceiling as the paramedics pushed her through the corridors from the ambulance bay. At least the Rutan didn’t survive the fall and was in the Thames. Everytime she closed her eyes she saw the river rushing up at her, so she glued her eyes open.

It was boring, the ceiling was boring, the paramedic and ambulance driver wouldn’t listen or let her up, and finally, after two hours of being practically restrained by the triage nurse, who also didn’t listen, she was wheeled into the X-Ray.

“Bozhe Moi!” the radiographer said. “You have two hearts!”


	25. Commander Chan Yu

Yu stood, bored, waiting while the Doctor played with everything in the toy store. He’d finally wandered out and bought himself a takeaway tea and was on the way back when a blond woman dressed in black rushed up to him and hugged him tight.

“You needed it!” she said, stepping back and looking up at him, holding his arms still, smiling widely.

It was only after she let go Yu recognised the same backwash signature of artron energy and psychic touch.

“Doctor? Is this strictly allowed? I didn’t know regeneration could change gender? Is it something to do with what the Master did to you before you met me?”

“No. Not in the least. Or not directly. It doesn’t. As a rule. We tend not to talk about it,” she babbled in truly non-sensical Doctor style. “You’re looking after me and I saw you standing there alone, so lost,” she went on. “I thought I’d give you a hug. You’re the one giving all the hugs at the moment.”

Yu scowled. “Thank you Doctor. I think. We’re managing.”

“Thank you. Thank you. I never thank you,” she said, hugging him again so tightly that Yu was alarmed by the sudden idea that he was going to die young. He looked over her head to see his Doctor approaching with a silly grin that didn’t meet his sad eyes. She must have sensed him – himself - herself – whatever - and let go and ran off into the crowds of shoppers.

“Who was that?” the Doctor asked, looking nervous and threatened, if not a little jealous.

“A random hugger. Performance Art. Spirituality. Something about sharing the love,” Yu lied quickly.

“Oh? Look!” the Doctor pulled a yellow disc out of the bag. “They have drone yoyos. Drone yoyos! I got one in every colour! Look!”

“Drone yoyos! You don’t need a drone yoyo, let alone lots. Who on Earth needs a drone yoyo?”

The Doctor pouted. “We’re not on Earth. And yes I do. Look,” he began to yoyo completely stringless. Yu had to admit they were pretty cool. He pulled his juggling balls from his pocket and began to juggle, one handed. The Doctor smiled genuinely at him and took his tea and sipped it. Yu grinned back. One day the Doctor would recover, he had seen it today. He looked up and saw the other Doctor, the female one, on the other side of the plaza, sitting at a table with a pot of tea. He put aside his juggling and waved. She waved back. He took his Doctor by the elbow,

“Come on Doctor, let’s get you your own tea.”

“And cake?” the Doctor asked hopefully.

Yu nodded. He knew the child-like behaviours were a response to the trauma. He would just be patient. He took the Doctor’s hand and led him in the opposite direction of his future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Commander Chan Yu is my own character companion from the (fan?) novel I've nearly finished and may post. It is a serious plotted political allegory although it has oodles of hurt/comfort and angst. Yu is a Chinese John Crichton (from Farscape) and looked likes a human (i.e. he's not a cartoon!) Li Shang (from Mulan). I've already posted a fic about him called The Rescue, if anyone is interested!


	26. Wheel of Fortune

Zoe was rushing for her shift, having overslept, when she crashed into the oddly dressed blonde woman, who caught her, steadying.

“Careful there Zoe,” she said, smiling gently, looking into Zoe’s eyes.

Zoe found she couldn’t look away. And then she was awash with a flood of memories, as if they had all been locked away behind a huge dam in her mind and now they were pouring out, a waterfall, a tsunami, of them.

“Doctor? Is it really you? You’ve changed so much. Did the Time Lords do that to you? Oh! How could they make me forget! Jamie!”

**Author's Note:**

> Anyone who looks at my works will know I'm a wordy person. Anyone in the past who had to mark an essay or edit a contribution to a paper would know that too. I'm trying to cut down on the words, man...


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